Calligraphy originated in the pre-Qin era. In this course, it is divided into five categories: simple decorative seal script, elegant official script, dignified and rigorous regular script, graceful and smooth running script and chic cursive script. Among them, seal script is listed as the earliest writing style in China.
Baidu Encyclopedia's interpretation of fonts is the external formal feature of words. Dig into its meaning, who wrote the text? Written by the author; The external formal characteristics are the characteristics of the characters in the author's works. So the font has a strong personal color and is very unique. Unlike calligraphy, calligraphy can be called a collection of fonts. For example, the second China official script mentioned in the course is full of stretch and grandeur, while Cao Quanbei is like bluegrass, beautiful and vigorous; Huashan Monument is very decorative, while Kong Zhou Monument is elegant and gorgeous. All three kinds of inscriptions belong to official script, but the authors are different and their expressions have strong personal style. Let's talk about many artistic styles that have appeared since ancient times, such as the printed song style and imitation song style derived from regular script, as well as the chrysanthemum style with great ornamental significance today. Regular script can be called font, and so can these derived artistic styles. Wayne diagram can best represent this relationship.
Generally speaking, there are many calligraphers in ancient times. Yan Zhenqing's calligraphy includes the pen of seal script, the knot of official script and the composition of cursive script. Why can its personal font be called calligraphy? Because when learning fonts, it is not limited to the font transformation of a book. After understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each book, it combines its strengths and discards its shortcomings to enhance its meaning, thus forming its own unique font style. Therefore, when future generations identify famous masterpieces, they often gradually determine them by summarizing the characteristics and structure of their previous fonts. In modern criminal cases, there is often a kind of expert to help solve the case-font expert, which is also the same reason.
Let's talk about the "chrysanthemum style" pursued by a few people now, which was named by its founder in 20 13. As the name implies, it is named after writing the bottom words in regular script and hooking the edges with a pen, which looks like chrysanthemum petals. Strictly speaking, "chrysanthemum" can't be called a font, but the difference between it and ordinary fonts is that ordinary fonts can be completed in one process, and only writing is needed, which of course includes elements such as composition and structure with pen power; However, on this basis, chrysanthemum adds a process of drawing characters on the edge. So it's not a new font. But it still belongs to a special regular script under regular script.
In a word, there is no difference between characters and fonts in the early days of the emergence of characters, but in the changes of times and dynasties, fonts, as the carrier of culture, evolved in different directions on the basis of characters, which are inseparable and different. Therefore, there are many factors that affect font changes, both subjective and objective; However, the style of calligraphy has certain characteristics of the times, and personal factors have little influence on it. Every moment, new fonts are derived from books, and ever-changing fonts also exist in books.